IM bomber still in India

Asadullah Akhtar, Uttar Pradesh’s chief link to the February 21 Hyderabad blasts, was working from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat for the last two years.

This revelation from several arrested cadres of Indian Mujahideen contradicts reports that Akhtar had skipped India following the 2008 Batla House encounter in Delhi.

“He remained very much in India, helped the IM to regroup, became a leading bomber and works in close coordination with the group’s Indian head Yasin Bhatkal,” said a senior official in the state home ministry.

Son of well-known doctor, Javed Akhtar of Azamgarh, Akhtar was recruited to IM by his childhood friend Atif Amin—the slain head of the group’s deadly Mehmood Ghaznavi brigade.“His footprints are corroborated in two major bombings — Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai and Jungli Road in Pune,” said the official.